San Francisco has long been considered a technology leading city, a progressive place for businesses and living, a beautiful tourist destination, and an environmental programs leader. But while one hundred other world cities have managed to implement large-scale bicycle sharing programs with great success, San Francisco has squandered years studying and planning, yet failing to implement a city bike sharing program. So though the long overdue launch of that program will finally be realized shortly, the program will launch with a paltry fifty bikes spread over five racks in downtown.
While there has been high hopes and enthusiasm that San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom would embrace a city-wide, full-scale launch of the program, the reality is a meager debut and much slower roll-out than that for which many had been pushing. And while it may be small in scale, this pilot program will still cost one million dollars initially, with half of that for maintenance each year.
The program has been years in the making, with fits and starts, reviews, delays, and various city, business and community wrangling. Now that it is here many believe that it is set to crash due to its small initial launch. Other cities in the United States have learned difficult lessons with inadequate launches and wished that they had gone with a broader scale program from the outset. Given that these lessons were widely available from other cities, it has caused a lot of frustration for many. The fear is that the program’s successes and future will be determined by the small scale launch and yet the initial design has almost no chance for success without a broader roll-out according to insiders.
